The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiative of the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to host the International Conference on Biological and Cultural Diversity: Diversity for Development (8-10 June 2010, Montreal, Canada) to develop a joint programme of work on biological and cultural diversity, and requests that future work include broad partnerships with the Permanent Forum, other relevant agencies, indigenous peoples’ organizations and non-governmental organizations
The Permanent Forum urges the United Nations Population Fund, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and other regional mechanisms, in collaboration with indigenous peoples, to conduct studies on indigenous peoples, urbanization and migration, with an emphasis on indigenous women and youth.
The Permanent Forum welcomes such initiatives as the indigenous and local community, business and biodiversity consultation, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 12 and 13 May 2009, as a useful dialogue between the private sector and indigenous peoples, and encourages further discussions with a view to ensuring the effective implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples while stimulating community-level businesses based on the sustainable use of biodiversity through such creative partnerships.
The Permanent Forum notes the increasing operational activity of extractive industries and other large-scale development projects, including land grabbing, which is taking place on or near the territories of indigenous peoples in many African States, often without the involvement of indigenous peoples and without their free, prior and informed consent. The Forum recommends that African States must respect the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in particular the right of indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent.
The Forum, recognizing the need for complementarity and coordination of indigenous training and education within the United Nations system, recommends that training and education partners within the United Nations system, in particular the ILO, the Office and other relevant agencies, hold discussions in order to develop a coordinated approach and a common electronic gateway to all education and training opportunities for indigenous peoples within the international system. As the United Nations body for coordination regarding indigenous issues, the Forum will construct the web site of the Forum available for such a gateway.
The Forum recalls its mandate to "prepare and disseminate information on indigenous issues", and invites indigenous peoples’ organizations to consider creative ways of educating and disseminating information on the Forum to indigenous peoples’ organizations and communities, including through art, workshops, radio programmes, posters, indigenous journalism and other culturally appropriate media. To that end, the Forum recommends that the programmes, funds and agencies of the United Nations system allocate appropriate resources for this purpose, assist in the production of such materials, include indigenous professionals in the production of such materials and report to the Forum at its third session on the extent to which they have been able to incorporate these actions into their programmes of work. The Forum also recommends that the United Nations Development Fund for Women allocate funding for capacity-building in connection with the Forum and for special outreach to indigenous women. The Forum furthermore recommends that the United Nations Children’s Fund allocate funding for capacity-building in connection with the Forum and for special outreach to indigenous children and youth.
The Permanent Forum calls on all States that have not yet done so to implement the 2005 Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and other international initiatives that address climate change and biocultural diversity in conjunction with indigenous peoples, including indigenous women, in a full and effective way. The Annex I countries should implement their commitments to the Kyoto Protocol by doing all they can to shift their economic systems towards low-carbon systems, instead of relying mainly on the purchase of emission credits to offset their emissions. The fast-industrializing developing countries should also undertake serious efforts to cut their emissions and develop low-carbon energy systems.
The Permanent Forum urges Governments and donors to support community-based monitoring and information systems, citizen science and the democratization of information technologies, as complementary to national and global statistical and information systems, and to prioritize capacity-building and funding and for such initiatives.
The Permanent Forum recommends that States, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other relevant organizations adopt targeted policies, programmes, projects and budgets designed to address the staggering prevalence of diabetes among indigenous peoples and put in place culturally appropriate health services, health education and awareness-raising initiatives to treat diabetes and prevent its rapid growth. Particular attention should be given to pregnant women, whose reproductive health is closely linked to the future risk of their children developing diabetes.
The Permanent Forum also notes the number of interventions by indigenous peoples alarmed at the denial of their right to free, prior and informed consent in relation to extractive industries and other forms of large- and small-scale development. Therefore, the Permanent Forum recommends that States and international financial and aid institutions systematically monitor, evaluate, assess and report on how free, prior and informed consent has or has not been recognized and applied with respect to the lands, territories and resources of the indigenous peoples concerned.
The Permanent Forum urges States to prepare reports on the actions taken to address the recommendations of all United Nations special rapporteurs, in particular the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, especially the recommendations made at the conclusion of country visits, and encourages States to monitor their progress in this regard, in collaboration with indigenous peoples, United Nations country teams and all other relevant parties. Furthermore, the Forum reiterates that national human rights institutions are encouraged to assist indigenous peoples, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and the Permanent Forum in the implementation of the Declaration.
The Permanent Forum recommends that the Human Rights Council and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights investigate the possibility of the development and acceptance of general recommendations relating to the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination by securing their access to their ancestral lands, territories and natural resources.